Image Source: OaklandNorth.netCritics often point to dumping waste as part of that "broken-window" syndrome that drags down Oakland neighborhoods with low self-esteem, as families and kids get used to piles of garbage thrown out of cars and trucks.
So it was good to read that Oakland kids were praised last month for a unique school food waste composting program by a national waste industry magazine, Waste Age. Green Gloves has been teaching children, parents and custodians to separate out food scraps at lunchtime for composting in nearly half the city's schools.
It may be only a small lesson, but the Green Gloves/Sustainability Initiatives gives our kids a better image than illegal dumping, even if that still goes on outside the schools. Waste Management, the Houston-based contractor that holds Oakland's garbage contract, worked with about 20 schools to start the composting program three or four years ago.
Things really took off after Waste Management, the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and the school district custodians director concluded that school custodians should be more involved to make the program a success - and that means changing the mindset of 230 permanent custodians and 75 substitutes.
There are several lessons here: progressive program, environmental awareness, involving kids and their schools and parents, and finally, getting the custodians themselves to lead the change.
Oakland North wrote in more detail about the program at one elementary school. Good vibes all around.
Its hard not to think of trash being illegally throw out the window of drivers and such when you hear anything like rubbish, trash, garbage, that sort of thing. Because thats the problem, people are illegally dumping their garbage and not carefully disposing of it.
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